In an expanding exodus of Twitter top management, officials including its marketing and advertising chiefs departed the company in the past few days, according to statements and a person with firsthand knowledge about the matter.
The exits follow billionaire Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the company last week, followed by his firing of CEO Parag Agrawal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, Reuters reported, mentioning sources.
Sarah Personette, who was the ad boss and chief customer officer, posted on Twitter on Tuesday that she quit last week, deepening advertisers’ uncertainty over how the social media company will change under Musk.
Chief People and Diversity Officer Dalana Brand disclosed on Tuesday in a LinkedIn post that she had handed in her resignation last week as well. General manager for core technologies Nick Caldwell confirmed his exit on Twitter, editing his profile bio to “former Twitter exec” by Monday night.
Its vice president of global sales, Jean-Philippe Maheu, and chief marketing officer Leslie Berland, Twitter’s head of product Jay Sullivan, have also left, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. It was not immediately clear whether they resigned or were fired.
Berland tweeted a blue heart but did not provide details. Caldwell refused to further comment. The other five would not reply to requests for comment.
Many employees who spoke with Reuters said they continue to get little communication about the future of the company. An all-staff meeting that was planned for Wednesday was called off, following the cancellation by Twitter of a check-in call last week.
Musk’s team is meeting with advertisers this week in New York, as the company’s increasingly nervous customers sound alarms about the potential for harmful content to pop up next to their ads.
Hateful content has surged since Musk finalized the deal. Use of the n-word has escalated by almost 500% on Twitter, said the Network Contagion Research Institute, which establishes “cyber-social threats.”
A coalition of over 40 advocacy organizations including the Free Press and NAACP sent an open letter to Twitter’s top 20 advertisers on Tuesday, requesting them to remove their ads if Musk guts content moderation on the platform.
Buy Bitcoin NowMediabrands, a unit of ad holding company IPG, has urged its clients to stop advertising on Twitter for the next week until the company offers more details about its plans to protect trust and safety on the platform, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
IPG works with leading advertisers like Coca-Cola. Musk has tried to convince advertisers. “Twitter’s commitment to brand safety is unchanged,” he tweeted on Monday.
He previously said he would lift Twitter’s ban on former President Donald Trump, who was suspended because of concerns he could instigate further violence after the U.S. Capitol riot in 2021.
